Negotiations (Kylo Ren x Reader)

Epilogue

You were dancing, spinning in circles pressed up against Kylo's chest. Time did not exist as your black gown fluttered in the gentle breeze, the stars twinkling above you, your heels clicking against the dark wood of the dance floor. Beautiful, ethereal music played somewhere, muffled by distance. But you didn't need it, all you needed was Kylo, the beat of his heart steady in your ear. You looked up at him, grinning, and he dipped you back, pressing his lips to the top of your head and pulling you closer. Candles flickered, floating through the air, the floor seeming to be suspended in the middle of space. How you were able to breathe, you didn't know. You didn't care.

He spun you around, taking your waist when the floor began to rumble. You froze, looking up at him, but he didn't seem to notice.

"Kylo," You whispered, the rumbling turning to quaking, a loud crack splitting the air as tiny pieces of the dance floor began to break off and float away. "Kylo!" You yelled, but suddenly your mouth was full, hot liquid spilling down your chin. You put your fingers to your lips, and they came away red. Kylo was suddenly ten feet away, reaching out for you, but something grabbed you around the middle. You screamed as you were ripped away from him.

The only thing you knew was pain. You had no sense of where you were, you saw nothing except the constant flashes of lightning, heard nothing but the sound of your own screams. You had to have a body, to feel pain like this, but you couldn't place your limbs, you had no corporeal sense of direction. You were barely hanging onto the thread of your sanity, but you knew there was something you needed to get back to, someone who needed you. Kylo, something around you whispered, and you tried to move, to get free. Nothing happened. Lightning flashed again.

"Who are you?" Fear seized you as the decrepit voice from your nightmares echoed all around you. He'd been here before, you'd never seen his face, but he'd been here, he'd tortured you, over and over and over again. You held your lips tightly together, you wouldn't give him the satisfaction. "Everyone breaks eventually." That horrible, cackling laugh was all you heard, drowning out your screams as lightning struck you, the flashes not enough to penetrate the thick darkness. It could have been seconds or hours before you were finally alone, drifting off into sweet unknowing.

An electric shock dragged you from sleep, fear piercing through you like a blade. Where were you? Everything was dark, not even the flashes of lightning illuminating your surroundings. A voice pierced through the silence.

"Who are you?" The aged, throaty voice caused a visceral fear to awaken in you, but his question made you queasy, your mind stretching your memory until your head ached. Who were you?

"I-" You stuttered, and you supposed it had to be your voice. It sounded foreign. "I don't know."

"Excellent." Something squeezed around your neck, choking you until you faded away again.

Kylo

Kylo Ren knelt before Supreme Leader Snoke, doing his best to swallow back his revulsion, his fury, his despair. It had taken two dozen collared troops to hold him down, two syringes of the anesthetic in his neck to force him into unconsciousness. Vicrul's name echoed in his thoughts. He had betrayed him before, and he should have known better than to trust him again. She should have known better than to trust him. And now she was dead. He couldn't get the image out of his head, the light fading from her eyes, her skin losing its color, the scythe sticking from her abdomen. Kylo vowed to find Vicrul and tear him limb from limb.

"Your mind betrays you, Kylo Ren." Snoke said, nodding his head and allowing Kylo to stand. "You still think of the girl." Kylo said nothing, trying to keep his trembling hands steady. "Love is a weakness." Snoke spat, gripping the arms of his throne with gnarled fingers and leaning forward. "Do you understand that now?"

"Yes," Kylo whispered, his tone strained as he struggled to keep his composure.

"I hope so, for your own sake." The Supreme Leader stood, stepping down from the dais to stand before his apprentice. "I am willing to give you another chance. Do not take that lightly." Kylo worked his jaw. "War is coming." Kylo tensed. "She is dead, be on the winning side."

"I want to see her body." The word slipped from Kylo's lips before he could stop them. It was the wrong thing to say, but he didn't care.

"I'm afraid that's not possible. Vicrul has disposed of her on his way to his new assignment." Kylo froze, gaze flickering up to Snoke.

"Where?"

"You will cast both of them from your mind, boy. Your allegiance is to me." Snoke forced Kylo down with a flick of his wrist, shirt lifting to expose his bare back. "Though I can give you something to remember her by." Kylo felt one of Snoke's guards approach from behind, and Snoke held his powers captive. He was frozen, unable to defend himself as the whip whistled through the air, snapping down on his skin with a painful crack. It hit him again and again, but Kylo was barely present. He thought of her, of his fingers tracing the wounds from this whip on her skin, of the soft way she looked at him, like she accepted him, body and soul. There was no physical pain that would match the anguish he felt inside, no amount of time or healing that would take away the hole in his chest. The Praetorian guard backed away, and Kylo stood, feeling the blood drip down his back onto the floor.

"You'll report for training in the morning." Snoke demanded, looking into his mind as the rage turned to white noise. Kylo could do it, he decided, he could play Snoke's game, he could pretend to be the First Order's attack dog for a little longer. Then, when the time was right, he would kill them all. Snoke, Hux, Vicrul, all of them. Everyone who had played a part in her death would die, slowly.

"Yes, Supreme Leader." Kylo Ren tracked blood down the hallway as he returned to his quarters, quietly plotting his revenge.